Students question small Sodexo portions

Students recently murmured complaints about small portion sizes and a lack of to-go options in the dining hall.

For Les Petroff, Sodexo general manager, the small portions were an easy fix.

“What happened is simply a misunderstanding with our staff,” Petroff said. “The night it happened, students were coming into my office every five minutes with their plates.”

Petroff said the misunderstanding happened because employees are normally asked to give a serving size of four ounces per food item.

When students want rice, potatoes, meat and vegetables, they’re only supposed to get about four ounces of each.

But when students only ask for potatoes, they were still just getting four ounces.

“We told all of our servers – day shift and night shift – you don’t cut back, and you give the student what they ask for,” Petroff said.

Some students said they see no real measurement of food.

“Sometimes it seems like they don’t give you enough and sometimes they give you way too much,” sophomore Rachel Bertram said.

Others say patrons deserve bigger portions.

“We pay a lot for this meal plan,” freshman Gaeron Gruber said. “They’re getting more and more frugal and stingy with their portions.”

Endless to-go lunches will not be an option.

Although students can use their meal cards nearly around the clock, Petroff said the dining hall allows one to-go sandwich from the deli area each day.

“We open the doors at 6:30 a.m. and don’t close until 8 p.m.,” Petroff said. “It’s an all-you-can-eat program, but it’s all you can eat here in the building.”

Students said they find the dining hall’s schedule hard to work around.

“If you can’t make it to the cafeteria, you can’t make it to the cafeteria,” Gruber said. “You shouldn’t have to miss lunch.”

Bertram said she sometimes has trouble finding time to eat in the dining hall.

“I think [the hall hours are] inconvenient for students,” Bertram said. “I think it leads to more fast food intake. I work a lot, so I don’t have time to sit here all the time. I think it’d be convenient for a lot of people if they did it.”

Ashley Shuler is the executive editor of The Franklin. She has held various multimedia journalism and public relations internships, including positions at Indianapolis Monthly, The Children's Museum of Indianapolis and Dittoe Public Relations.
When she isn't staying up late to edit stories, Ashley spends her time boutique shopping and drinking as much vanilla Coke as possible.
This is Ashley's third year in a leadership role and her fourth year on The Franklin staff. She previously held positions as web editor and news editor.

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